{"id":899149,"date":"2026-04-14T13:21:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/14\/epa-hits-40-year-lows-in-staffing-after-trump-targets-its-public-health-experts\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T13:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:21:30","slug":"epa-hits-40-year-lows-in-staffing-after-trump-targets-its-public-health-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/14\/epa-hits-40-year-lows-in-staffing-after-trump-targets-its-public-health-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA Hits 40-Year Lows in Staffing After Trump Targets Its Public Health Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When President Donald Trump first sought to be the Republican standard-bearer in 2016, he promised to reduce the Environmental Protection Agency to \u201clittle tidbits<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten years later, he is closer than ever to that goal, according to an Inside Climate News analysis<\/a> of federal workforce data released by the Office of Personnel Management.<\/p>\n

The EPA lost more than 4,000 employees in the first year of Trump\u2019s second term, bringing its staffing down to a total of 12,849\u2014a level not seen since the Reagan administration. <\/a>That represents a reduction of 24 percent, more than double the rate of losses across the entire federal workforce.<\/p>\n

The loss of expertise, particularly in science and health, runs deeper still. Proportionately, there were even greater reductions of staff with doctorate degrees, team leaders and those working in health occupations, a broad government employment category that includes public health experts.<\/p>\n

The EPA said the changes in staffing were meant to improve the agency\u2019s ability to carry out its mission. \u201cOver the past year, EPA has undertaken a strategic restructuring to better provide clean air, land, and water for all Americans grounded in an unwavering commitment to gold-standard science,\u201d an agency spokesperson said in an email. \u201cThis transformation ensures that every decision we make best fulfills our statutory obligations to protect human health and the environment, Power the Great American Comeback, and serve as exceptional stewards of taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental advocates, including former EPA scientists, see the cuts quite differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s devastating,\u201d said Betsy Southerland, who retired in 2017 as director of the EPA\u2019s Office of Science and Technology within the Office of Water.<\/p>\n

Among those who departed in 2025, she noted, were members of the team that developed an acclaimed new method<\/a> for speeding up evaluations of the health risks of the thousands of biopersistent chemicals found nationwide in drinking water, soil, air, wildlife and human blood. Southerland worries about setbacks to managing these \u201cforever chemicals\u201d\u2014PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if any of that work can continue at all, or if it will happen so much more slowly, because everybody\u2019s gone,\u201d Southerland said. \u201cYou can\u2019t replace them with junior people who have just joined EPA. You\u2019d be asking them to replace the people who literally developed the testing methodology.\u201d Those pioneers are not around to train their successors.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Congress Balked, But the EPA Cut Anyway<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The full extent of the exodus from the EPA became apparent only this week, when the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released its snapshot of the federal workforce as of the end of January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the previous monthly data release, the EPA was shown as having lost just over 13 percent of its employees by the end of 2025. But that was before the effective date for a wave of voluntary and early retirements. Data on departures from government employment indicate that almost 2,000 staff left the EPA\u2019s roster at year-end, taking with them huge reserves of institutional experience: Those who left had a median length of service of 30.3 years, compared to 10.8 years for the staff who remain.<\/p>\n

Under the EPA\u2019s Deferred Resignation Program, many of the workers OPM listed as retiring in December had been out of the office since July.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were being paid not to come into work, with no access to government email\u2014basically on paid leave until their official retirement paperwork went into effect at the end of December,\u201d said Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, former principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA\u2019s Office of Research and Development (ORD). Orme-Zavaleta, who spent 40 years at the agency before her 2021 retirement, has kept in touch with former colleagues and believes the exits ultimately will be even larger than those already recorded. \u201cRight now, OPM is flooded with processing those separations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Southerland said she feels the term \u201cretirements\u201d is a misnomer for the staff departures in the agency\u2019s science research arm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were forced out,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were basically told, \u2018We\u2019re eliminating ORD. You can stay and try to apply to \u2026 some other office and see if they\u2019ve got a vacancy to pick you up, or you can retire.\u2019 And a lot of them left.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reduction in staff largely fulfills the reorganizational goals that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last July<\/a>, which centered on eliminating ORD. Zeldin said at the time that the EPA would shift its scientific expertise to the program offices that focus on issues like clean air and water, while saving the agency nearly $750 million.<\/p>\n

\"EPA
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks during a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump and his administration at the White House on Aug. 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Democratic members of Congress balked<\/a> at the plan, calling it \u201ca catastrophe for public health, environmental protection, and the civil servants working in ORD offices across the country.\u201d And Republicans joined in approving a fiscal year 2026 budget for the EPA that included a more modest cut of about $300 million, or 3 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A bipartisan Senate report<\/a> accompanying the bill last summer directed the EPA to halt all action to close or reorganize ORD. The GOP leadership succeeded in weakening that language in the appropriations package passed in January after months of partisan rancor and the longest government shutdown in history. But the final legislation directed the EPA to \u201cmaintain staffing levels in order to fulfill the mission and statutory obligations of the agency,\u201d including a 1981 law requiring a separate research and development program.<\/p>\n

An EPA spokesperson said its aim was to better integrate science into decision-making by moving scientific expertise into the EPA\u2019s program offices, with support from a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEPA is ensuring that gold-standard science continues to be infused into every rulemaking, technical assistance to states, and programmatic decisions,\u201d the EPA spokesperson wrote. \u201cThis approach positions scientific rigor at the forefront of our mission, strengthening our capacity to meet statutory requirements with the highest level of scientific integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at least one member of Congress who helped negotiate the appropriations deal for the EPA, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), said that the deep cuts are contrary to lawmakers\u2019 intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did is a real rebuke to this administration and what they\u2019ve been doing,\u201d said Pingree, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee\u2019s subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies. \u201cWe made it very clear that we wanted them to staff back up and to replace some of the expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pingree said she was \u201cbeyond outraged\u201d at the cuts and is determined to question the EPA\u2019s leadership at an upcoming hearing the Appropriations Committee is now working to schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that this administration does not like the EPA, does not really understand the environmental challenges that are out there, and as a consequence, they are really happy to shrink the organization to a size where it\u2019s questionable how well it will be able to function,\u201d Pingree said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the EPA, also said he intends to push back against the cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the EPA loses leaders who are experts in fighting for human health and the environment, it is the American people who will suffer,\u201d Merkley said in an email. \u201cThe Trump Administration is carelessly cutting critical jobs at the EPA and other agencies, and Congress must use its oversight powers to fight this dangerous trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, sees the cuts in light of the Trump administration\u2019s support of the fossil fuel industry. \u201cPresident Trump and Lee Zeldin\u2019s decimation of the EPA will lead to decades of disease from poisoned water and toxic air, and an increasingly unlivable planet, plundered by Big Oil,\u201d he wrote in an email. \u201cThe depth of the corruption is unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

2026 Problems; 1985 Staffing Levels<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By bringing the EPA\u2019s staff down to a 40-year low, the Trump administration has reduced it to the size it was before Congress gave the agency massive additional responsibilities in amendments to the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act, to name just a few examples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Moreover, current staffers face new challenges like PFAS and climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"EPA
EPA contractors remove household hazardous waste as they search through homes damaged by the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Calif., on Jan. 30, 2025. Credit: Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tracey Woodruff, professor of epidemiology and population health and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, who served as a scientist at the EPA for 13 years, noted that agency scientists have been instrumental in addressing the threats of PFAS, including discovering contamination of a new generation of those chemicals in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we don\u2019t have those scientists, these industries can go ahead and dump whatever they want, wherever they want, because there\u2019s not going to be any scientists to identify these toxic health effects and alert the appropriate authorities,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

The contraction of the EPA staff, however, coincides with the shift in priorities under the second Trump administration. At least some of the ORD scientists who were working on PFAS detection methods have been reassigned to evaluate new chemicals coming on the market. The chemical industry has long complained of the backlog in these reviews, which by law are supposed to be completed within 90 days, and Zeldin has pledged to speed up the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the previous administration, hundreds of new chemicals remained in regulatory limbo far beyond statutory review timelines, as did more than 12,000 pesticide reviews, and 685 State Implementation Plans to improve air quality around the country,\u201d the EPA spokesperson said. Such backlogs were proof that \u201cthese transformational changes were necessary,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Even at a reduced size, the spokesperson said, \u201cwe remain confident EPA has the resources needed to accomplish EPA\u2019s core mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey have a different mission for EPA than the career staff who actually thought the mission was to protect public health and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Betsy Southerland, former director of the EPA Office of Science and Technology<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But scientists fear resources are being shifted away from problems that would put the EPA in conflict with the industries it regulates, while the team leaders and experienced scientists who would be in a position to challenge decisions have been winnowed out of the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want political leadership to be the only ones to decide what will or will not be regulated,\u201d Southerland said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to have in-house experts who could say, \u2018Oh, my God, you must regulate this.\u2019 They have a different mission for EPA than the career staff who actually thought the mission was to protect public health and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zeldin has expressed the agency\u2019s mission as two-fold, protecting health while freeing businesses, especially in the energy industry, from regulatory restraints. \u201cUnder President Trump\u2019s leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback,\u201d Zeldin said in a statement when he announced the decision to dissolve ORD.<\/p>\n

But critics say the dual mission that Zeldin has articulated is at odds with itself, as when industry pollution threatens public health. They see the cuts in the EPA\u2019s scientific expertise as in line with the agency\u2019s decisions to roll back regulations on ozone, soot and greenhouse gas pollution from motor vehicles and power plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scientists at EPA, for generations now, have been absolutely instrumental in doing what Congress intended EPA to do when it enacted the Clean Air Act, which is harnessing knowledge, harnessing scientific progress and harnessing technological progress to improve public health,\u201d said Joe Goffman, who was the EPA\u2019s assistant administrator for air programs in the Biden administration, and shepherded the greenhouse gas rules that are now being dismantled. \u201cIf your agenda is to put a stop to all that, then you have to remove one of the key links in this chain of improvement and change, which is the scientists themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

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About This Story<\/h2>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

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Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMarianne Lavelle\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

Bureau Chief, Washington, D.C.<\/h4>\n

Marianne Lavelle is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief\u00a0for Inside Climate News. She has covered environment, science, law, and business in Washington, D.C. for more than two decades. She has won the Polk Award, the Investigative Editors and Reporters Award, and numerous other honors. Lavelle spent four years as online energy news editor and writer at National Geographic. She spearheaded a project on climate lobbying for the nonprofit journalism organization, the Center for Public Integrity. She also has worked at U.S. News and World Report magazine and The National Law Journal. While there, she led the award-winning 1992 investigation, \u201cUnequal Protection,\u201d on the disparity in environmental law enforcement against polluters in minority and white communities. Lavelle received her master\u2019s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is a graduate of Villanova University.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Peter\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPeter Aldhous\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

Data Journalist<\/h4>\n

Peter Aldhous is a science and data reporter based in San Francisco. He got his break in journalism in 1989 as a reporter for Nature in London, fresh from a Ph.D. in animal behavior. Later he worked as European correspondent for Science, news editor for New Scientist and chief news & features editor with Nature, before moving to California in 2005 to become New Scientist\u2019s San Francisco bureau chief. From 2015 to 2022 he worked on the science desk at BuzzFeed News. Peter also teaches investigative and policy reporting, data visualization, and news features writing in the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a two-time winner in the Global Editors Network Data Journalism Awards. His reporting has also been honored by the Association of British Science Writers, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and the Royal Statistical Society.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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